I am waterstone curious

[Timberwolf]

Mineral oil won't oxidize or turn to varnish.  But, as Adam mentioned, it's probably too thick to be very effective on a harder Arkansas stone.

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We know abrasion is what is wanted when honing on stones with a hard matrix..lubrication retards abrasion..the more viscus a fluid is, the less abrasion...I haven't tested mineral oil to see if over time it will solidify but I do know from my watch and clock repair days that the best oil {from whales and dolphins} can take many years to do so and "creep" is almost non existent. It stays "put"..

[Timberwolf]

You can use soapy water. Windex may work. As for the dishwasher, lots of mineral oils are food safe. And we put way nastier cookware in our dishwashers. It’s not a real concern. You can always soak them in hot soapy water.

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I have boiled some old flea market finds and they came out almost like new..Don't do it indoors.

..And I wouldn't boil any razor hones, or water stones...Ok on India and S.C.

[Downwindtracker2]

So many place sharpening methods on a pedestal, and argue for their favourite that you will get pages of posts. Heck, it's only abrading steel . Finer you get it, the longer it's going to be a usable edge. I've gone through some method, it's an equation of effort and results , I ended up with ceramic waterstones, belt sander, and a hard felt polisher.

But when I starting restoring axes, I found Norton waterstones the cat's aze.  Waterstones work by breaking down exposing new sharp grit. Norton stones break much too quickly for chisels and plane irons, the stone needs to flat, and flattening was much too frequent. With an axe, it doesn't matter. Axes I found had been used to chop stones, so a file to shape, a Norton 250grit to sharpen and a Norton 1000grit to edge.  For an axe , that's super sharp and dead easy